Worship Teams & Guitars

Guitars are, without doubt, the most versatile instrument in history. The guitar is equally at home in any style of music, from Baroque to heavy metal, jazz and blues to classical. You name it, the guitar can do it. It's also a self-contained instrument, meaning that it can provide melody, harmony and rhythm simultaneously. It can sit in the background, or it can take a very powerful lead. And lead it does, especially in modern day music.

For a worship team, there are certain practicalities that need to be considered. First is the question: electric or acoustic? Well, that really depends. First, assuming you have a guitarist equally at home on both and with good instruments, then you need to consider the role of electric and acoustic guitars in the team overall.

Acoustic Guitars

Acoustic guitars are great on two levels: strumming and finger picking. Strumming fills out the musical sound with a kind of sweetness and helps reinforce the rhythmic section of the band. Finger picking is great for slow worship songs and good finger-pickers can easily feature as instrumental solos or in the intros or outros.

Electric Guitars

Electric guitar provides a whole new set of dynamics to your music. It gives it drive, adds power, and can give it a new edge, particularly if an effects processor (or stomp boxes) is effectively used. There is a whole range of effects that can be used in songs. However, choices can often come down to whether to use distortion or clean (or at least relatively clean) sounds. There is no hard and fast rule. Each song has to be approached individually and it also depends on how many guitarists you have available at one time. Having more than one available obviously means that you have more options.

Guitars provide a "power" sound, especially if distortion is used. This is not only true with uptempo songs, but also with worship songs. As a worship song builds, changing from clean to distortion can really lift the song and provide that extra oomph. But don't forget that the guitarist needs to provide energy to be a lead instrument. Being the lead instrument is more than just being the up-front guy. It's about playing with confidence and energy, and "nailing" the song.

How To Set Up a Worship Team | Pursuit of Excellence | Worship Team Rehearsals | Why More is Less | Worship Teams & Keys | Worship Teams & Guitars | Worship Teams & Drums | The Power of Music